»Die Geschichte von Sofia« Lesung und Gespräch mit der Autorin Sofia Andruchowytsch

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© Alexander Chekmenev

Feb 23 11.30 am

"The story of Sofia"

Reading and discussion with the author Sofia Andrukhovych

Venue: Central Library in KAP 1, Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 1, 40210 Düsseldorf

"The Story of Sofia" tells of a passionate, secret love in the shadow of world politics and of the Ukrainian struggle against Soviet-Russian supremacy.

At the center of the intelligentsia in Kiev in the 1920s are the poet Mykola Zerov, his beautiful wife Sofia and her lover, the mysterious author, scientist and Soviet-German double agent Viktor Petrov. But under Stalinism, "Soviet Ukraine" not only falls victim to a murderous famine, its flourishing literary life is also mercilessly destroyed. When Zerov was arrested in 1934 and shot by Stalin's henchmen in 1937, Petrov played a dubious role. In the story of Sofia, the concluding volume of the Amadoka epic, Andrukhovych brings together all the threads of the great trilogy and impressively demonstrates that we can only understand Ukraine's present if we know its history.

Sofia Andrukhovych, born in 1982 in Ivano-Frankivsk/Ukraine, lives in Kiev as a writer, translator and essayist. Her literary breakthrough came in 2014 with the novel "The Paper Boy", which was translated into several languages and made into a film. In 2024, Sofia Andrukhovych, together with her translators Alexander Kratochvil and Maria Weissenböck, received the "International Hermann Hesse Prize" from the Calwer Hermann Hesse Foundation.

Moderation and translation: Alexander Kratochvil

A joint event by the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus Foundation, Düsseldorf City Libraries, Verein zur Förderung der Stadtpartnerschaft Düsseldorf-Czernowitz e.V., Respekt und Mut, Erinnerung lernen, Ridne Slowo e.V., Consulate General of Ukraine in Düsseldorf

As part of the event series "Ukraine is here"